A lifetime ago
When I was 23 I bought my first business: a retail store called Wicks'n'Sticks in PrestonwoodTown Center in Dallas, Texas. It was a natural progression for me because my mom owned 5 stores in Missouri and Illinois and I started working in the stores when I turned 15.
I loved almost every aspect of owning a store; the ordering, displaying, training, marketing, and even coming out with my own line of aromatherapy candles before the craze hit. The only thing I didn't enjoy was having to babysit some of the employees. I know you can't expect that much for minimum wage, but when someone just stands behind the counter while you work, you get annoyed.
I ran the store for 6 years and went through 2 pregnancies during that time. When I was 7 months pregnant, a couple approached me to buy the store. It was a sweet deal. I was ready to stay home and raise my children and the $120K profit from the sale would allow me to do that for a few years.
20 years has passed since this picture was taken and so much has happened in my life, and as I look at the girl in the photograph, it seems like that was a whole other lifetime...and it was.
